Floor 9

Following Amazon’s big announcements from its packed Echo event last week, we had the pleasure of chatting with Eric Turkington, vice president of strategic partnerships at Rain, a creative agency that specializes in voice and conversational interfaces, about Amazon’s voice strategy, the status quo of voice tech adoption, the challenges and efforts in finding better use cases for voice, and the brand opportunities that lie within. Overall, this is an episode of lively conversations and differing opinions that come together to paint a dynamic picture of where the voice technology may be heading in 2020 and beyond. If you wish to keep up with what’s happening in the world of voice tech and get a peek of what the future might hold, this episode is a must-listen!

What We Covered:

• Highlights from the Amazon hardware event and what they say about Amazon’s overall voice strategy
• How Alexa stacks up against competitors like Google Assistant and Siri, and the current state of the home platform war
• How brands have been leveraging voice tech to reach consumers, the challenges they encounter, and possible solutions to them
• The next frontier for Alexa and other voice assistants beyond home, and how they could develop new use cases
• Some general thoughts on how the voice computing space will develop in 2020 and beyond
• We laugh about how no one ever asks Samsung’s Bixby for anything 

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Apple hosted its annual iPhone unveiling event on Tuesday and the Lab team assembled once again to talk about the highlights and key takeaways from this year’s keynote. While many may regard this year’s event as quite unmemorable and perhaps even boring, we actually think what Apple unveiled (but not necessarily talked about on stage) lays a solid foundation for what is shaping up to be an exciting 2020 and beyond. Take a listen to find out why we think so and how Apple is gearing up for a post-mobile world with new services and wearables.

What We Covered:

• Personal favorite announcement from the event
• Apple TV+ details and Apple’s OTT strategy
• Apple Watch updates and its value proposition
• New iPhone lineup and updates
• Ultra-Wideband and how it sets Apple up for AR glasses
• We laugh about how Christina might get an Apple Watch by 2025

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In this episode, we sit down with Oscar Ortega, VP of Talent at the UM Studios team, and Adam Simon, executive director of strategy at the Lab, to discuss the status quo and the future of influencer economy. Starting with the very definition of “influencer,” the dominant social and live-streaming platforms on which they depend, and the increasing fraud found in today’s influencer economy, we dissect in detail the ins and outs of the industry and the dynamic push-and-pull between influencers and the platforms. Then, we turn our eyes to the future and the up-and-coming synthetic influencers. Compared to human influencers, these virtual influencers bring new opportunities and interesting challenges for brand marketers to navigate and experiment with.

What We Covered:

• The definition of an “influencer”
• The dominant influencer platforms
• The latest developments in the influencer economy
• The shifting landscape of gaming streaming
• The power dynamic between influencers and platforms
• The emergence of synthetic influencers and their pros and cons
• The facilitating factors of the rise of synthetic influencers
• What brands should pay special attention to in this space
• We laugh about the Pineapple influencer account Scott started

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In this episode, we sit down with Vicent and Michelle from the Magna Global team to talk about the latest in podcasting. Starting with the new podcasting report that Magna recently released, which found that ⅓ of US consumers are now listening to podcasts, we talked about how podcasting is growing as an advertising medium, how it still has plenty of room for further growth, and the hurdles it will need to overcome to achieve that. We also brought in some global perspectives, especially with input from Sharon Soh from our Singapore office. If you are a marketer who is curious about the podcasting space and want to keep up, then this episode is a must-listen!  

What We Covered:

• The status quo of the podcasting market — the audience growth, the content types, etc.
• Why the podcast audience is attractive to advertisers, esp. DTC brands
• Debating whether or not we have hit “peak podcast”
• Main challenges hindering podcast’s further growth
• A global POV on podcast advertising today & learnings from the APAC region 
• Takeaways for brand marketers looking to ramp up podcast ad buy
• Scott pitches his “Sunday morning ghost stories” podcast idea to the team

You can check out Magna’s Podcasting Report here (log-in required).

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In this episode, we start in the future with a short story about a world dominated by Facebook’s Libra after it took over as the global currency. Then we come back to the present where Scott chats with Adam and Christina from our strategy team on just how likely that Libra-dominated future could be. We also get to hear from two members of our global team, Felipe Kopaitic from our LatAm team and Kambiz Djafar from our EMEA team, who shared their thoughts on how Libra adoption could play out in their respective region. If you’ve read about Libra and still have a lot of questions about it, or simply want to learn more about this topic, then this episode is for you!

What We Covered:

• What the world would look like if Libra were to become the global currency 
• The many challenges that Facebook faces in launching Libra next year
• The benefits that Facebook stands to gain from Libra and the resulting privacy concerns
• The importance of earning consumer trust and overcoming regulatory hurdles
• How the LatAm and European markets will likely respond to Libra
• Takeaways for brand marketers wondering how Libra will impact consumer behavior

We only had time to read the first part of the speculative short story that Richard wrote. If interested, you can read the full version of the short story here.

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In this week’s episode, Scott sits down with the Lab’s head of strategy, Adam Simon, to talk about everything noteworthy from Apple’s WWDC event last week. From new AR tools to new privacy features, Apple is dedicated to position data privacy as a key selling point of its ecosystem while also making a considerable effort to ensure the consistency of its user experience across different devices. Have a listen and hear our take on Apple’s latest announcements and what they mean for brands.

What We Covered:

• Scott’s and Adam’s personal favorite announcements coming out of this WWDC;
• “Sign-in with Apple” and other new privacy features to come, and what they mean for data-driven brands and advertisers
• The new iPadOS and watchOS and what they say about Apple’s overall platform evolution
• Apple’s decision to break up the iTunes desktop app and new changes added to Apple podcast
• Brand takeaways

Links:

Apple WWDC 2019 Recap: Everything Brands Need to Know

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In this week’s episode, we are joined by Kenton Langstroth from Intersection, a smart cities technology and out-of-home advertising company based in NYC. And Terri Rockovich, a direct-to-consumer marketing veteran and founder of D2C pet food brand Jinx. The last few years have seen substantial growth of D2C brands, leveraging social media and lifestyle content to directly connect with key demographics through digital channels. In the past year or so, however, they are increasingly branching out of social media into new marketing channels such as OOH, print, and brick-and-mortar retail. We chat with the two industry insiders to chart the trajectory of D2C brand marketing and pick their brains for insights.

What We Covered:

• Terri’s experience in the D2C world
• Kenton explains what Intersection does and what is LinkNYC
• How Casper disrupted the mattress industry by leveraging the advantages of a D2C brand
• How the D2C branding and marketing strategy is evolving
• Why many D2C brands are turning to OOH ads to reach new audiences
• The unique advantages that DOOH ads provide in contrast to social media ads
• Brand takeaways for learning from the rise of D2C brands

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At Google’s annual developer conference on Tuesday, CEO Sundar Pachi kicked off the opening keynote address with a new mission statement: “building a more helpful Google for everyone”. Throughout the keynote, Google touted the many benefits that Google’s services and products, powered by its collection of personal data, provide for everyday consumers and help improve their lives. In this episode, Scott sits downs with Adam and Christina to discuss this shift in Google’s branding, updates to Google Search, the current state of the Google Assistant, and the future of Google’s smart home lineup.  

What We Covered:

• 3D objects and AR experiences and podcasts will be present in Google Search results
• Visual search tool, Google Lens can now help users at restaurants, calculate the tip and read sign aloud to users  
• Google Assistant is now 10x faster and process request locally on device
• Google Duplex comes to the web and the etiquette barrier that prevent people from using voice assistants in public
• Google announced the Nest Hub Max and the new “Helpful Home” branding
• Main takeaways for brand marketers from the Keynote.

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Where is Facebook going, and what does that mean for brands that advertise on its platforms? This week, your host Scott sits down with Adam and Christina from the strategy team to discuss the latest announcements from Facebook’s annual developer event this week and what they mean for the social network. As Facebook starts to work on transforming itself into “a privacy-focused social network built around messaging,” brands will have to evolve with the shifting audience attention and experiment with new ad products as well. Take a listen to find out what Facebook has planned for the future.

What We Covered:

• What Facebook’s pivot to private messaging mean for the News Feed
• How Facebook plans to monetize Groups and Events
• How stories become an increasingly important format for Facebook and advertisers
• Why and How Facebook is going all-in on social commerce across platforms
• Assessing the new “co-viewing” feature and its potential impact on Facebook and beyond
• Brand takeaways from the event

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Joined by special guest Lin Liu, Chief Strategy Officer of UM China, Scott and Richard have a fun chat about how the trends in our 2019 annual Outlook report are playing out in China, the similarities we see in the unbundling of search and the rise of lifestyle brands, and the divergence in regards to tech regulations as well as attitudes towards data privacy and automation between the West and the East. China’s unique digital ecosystem makes this an interesting conversation to have, as it presents a different perspective on some of the key issues U.S. marketers face, and we hope you find this episode insightful and thought-provoking. You can also read the China POV that Lin wrote here.

What We Covered:

• China’s unique BAT-dominant tech landscape and some insurgent brands
• Why Baidu is losing grip on the Chinese search market and how social commerce is taking over search as a lead generator
• Why voice search has yet to take off in China despite the high adoption of smart speakers
• The media consumption divide in China and how it reflects in the business models of popular streaming services
• How Chinese consumers think about data privacy and how Chinese platforms handle data security
• Examples of D2C brands in China adopting a lifestyle branding to expand into new verticals
• Why China is far more welcoming towards automation technologies than the West

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